BOX 145: Amalfi Coast to Sicily.

You're looking down on the gardens of the Villa Rufalo and then farther down to the town of Ravello and the Amalfi Coast, south of Naples. It was a stop along the route that Max, Janet and I were taking on our way to Sicily in 1983.

We almost didn't go to the Amalfi Coast: I was the sole driver, and I had read some guidebook descriptions of the one highway that went along the Coast as "hair-raising," with constant curves and low safety rails above steep seaside cliffs. But we finally agreed that I would start the drive, which began shortly after the town of Sorrento and the island of Capri, and we would turn around if my hair got a little too raised. As we discovered, the drive wasn't bad at all, since the amount of traffic, not to mention the frequent urban stretches, meant that no one was going over 35 mph, and the stone guard-walls were adequately high for my comfort. We stayed at a pensione just off the highway not far from Positano: a cozy place with a fine view, a friendly landlady, a good price, and a great fresh-orange compote to spread on our breakfast bread. As I explained in my previous post, I lost a roll of film later on our trip, one with photos of Naples up through Positano and Paiano. So I have no pictures to share of the first half of the drive, though I can mention two memories of Positano: a restaurant where the waiter forbade me to sprinkle cheese on my spaghetti with clams in the shell (quite rightly); and a little stretch of beach below the town where we went swimming and where I accidentally slid off a mossy rock several feet down into the cold but fortunately deep-enough water.

My next roll of film starts with a visit to the cathedral at Ravello, with its wonderful mosaic work. I took only two pictures, the second an image of Jonah and the Whale:

On the hill above the town is the Villa Rufalo, where Richard Wagner once stayed. The gardens, built on terraces, are a major attraction, for good reason. Here you see Max and Janet in separate photos:

And here are some other views of and from the gardens:

That afternoon we dined at one of my favorite places on the whole trip. It had the English name The Lemon Garden, and had been recommended in our Let's Go: Italy guidebook. This outdoor restaurant was in fact situated in a lemon garden or orchard on a terrace. Here are two views of it from below, its sign visible:

And here is the dining "room":

The restaurant's gimmick--though I hate to use that word--was that every dish on the menu was made with lemons. I remember a fresh-anchovy appetizer (delicious non-salty small fish with a lemon-parsley dressing), spaghetti with lemon sauce, a fish course, and some kind of lemon cake for dessert.

The town of Amalfi has its own cathedral, with a fantastic mix of styles including Arab-Norman. Puzzlingly, I took only one photo, showing part of the façade and bell tower:

On a nearby square I noticed the corner of a building with a beautiful gothic window and a Roman column:

My only other photo of the Amalfi Coast is of a rocky stretch above the water, with Max and Janet barely glimpsed. We may have stopped in Salerno, at the eastern end of the Coast, but I don't remember it. Our next major stop was Paestum, a bit farther south. This was once a Greek city (heyday around 550-450 BC), with three temples that are startlingly well preserved. Here is part of the city seen from a distance:

And here are Max and Janet walking up the ancient road toward a Temple of Hera:

There are actually two Temples of Hera, standing next to each other. Here is the younger (450 BC) and more intact Hera 2:

Here is Hera 1 seen from Hera 2, followed by a shot of Hera 1 alone:

And here is Max walking inside Hera 1:

And finally myself posing below a column of Hera 2:

After Paestum we drove southward on the autostrada until early evening, when we picked another town off the highway to stay the night. This was a Calabrian hill town, looking quite different from Tuscan ones (maybe more Greek, especially because some of the houses were whitewashed); and again I regret that I didn't keep a journal to write down the name. We found an upscale but still inexpensive hotel on the edge of town, and when we drove into the town center we were delighted to find the streets packed with people, mostly families with kids and elders, taking their early-evening stroll--an old custom in parts of Italy. I don't remember where we ate, but after dark the town was fairly deserted, especially the steep and narrow pedestrian alleys that mostly ended in cul-de-sacs. Here is what the town looked like the next morning from our hotel terrace:

And here are other views from the terrace:

Obviously a person could spend days happily in a place like this--but we did have a certain time pressure, so we drove on to Reggio di Calabria, at the very tip of the Italian boot, to catch a ferry to Messina. I took a couple of shots of the Strait of Messina and the shores of Sicily as seen from the ferry:

In the next posts I'll report on our travels in Sicily as we drove clockwise around the island.